Garment



Jan; 12, D. L. M DONALD I 2,308,337

l GARMENT Original Filed March 10, 1959 Patented Jan. 12, 1943 UNITEDSTATES PATENT orr ca Dorothy L. McDonald, Evanston .Ill., assig'nor toStandard Knitting Mills, Inc., Knoxville, Tenn, .a corporation ofTennessee Continuation of application Serial No. 260,957, March 10,1939. This application October 27, 1941, Serial No. 416,716

3 Claims.

This invention relates to garments, and more particularly to undershirts.and athletic shirts of the type commonly worn by men and boys.

Undershirts and athletic shirts for male wear now in general use aremanufactured from knitted fabric which is produced on machines intubular form. The body portion of agarment made from such material hasno seams, is of substantially uniform size throughout its length whenundonned, .and is not pre-formed or tailored to fit the figure of thewearer. The tubular portion is usually cut and sewed at the .top inorder to provide neck and arm holes, while the bottom .portion is leftentirely open and unobstructed. If desired, sleeves may be sewed to thetubularbody portion at the arm openings, although the latter are .moreoften left open to provide a shirt of the shoulder strap type. Knittedgarments of this type are commonly worn by men and boys either asundershirts or as athletic shirts with underpants or shorts.

It is desirable in the construction of a shirt of the characterdescribed that it be made of such length that, when worn, the lower partof the body portion may extend downwardly considerably below the hipline of the wearer, some persons evenpreferring'that the lowerperipheral edge of the shirt lie somewhat below the crotch. The bottomportions of such garments, however, have a tendency to roll up and bunchat thewaist because, being of tubular construction, they are notpro-formed to fit the figure but mustconform thereto by circumferentialstretching of the knitted material, and also because the male physiqueis somewhat broader at .or below the hip line than at the waistline, thecombination of which conditions tends to cause an unequal contraction ofthe material of the garmentnabout the waist and hips which pulls thelower,...more expanded portion upwardly. This rolling or creeping up ofshirts of the conventional .type often causes discomfiture to theirwearers.

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to providean undershirt or athletic shirt which will not tend to roll or creep.upitoward and bunch around the waistline of the wearer.

A further object'is to provide an undershirtyor athletic shirt of suchconstruction that the lower portion thereof will stay down over the hipswhile being worn.

Another object is to provide a shirt of the character described whichwill fit snugly around both .the waist and hips of the wearer,and-which, even though extending below the hips, will not bind the about.the level of the crotch of the wearer.

movements of the legs or crotch of the wearer.

A .still further object is .toprovide ;a mans undershirt or athleticshirt having a novelly constructed lower portion which will follow thebody movements of the wearer without sliding upwardly, and is adapted toprovide new comfort and convenience .to the wearers of such .gar-

merits.

These and other objects will appear more fully upon consideration of thefollowing detailed description of the embodiment of the inventionillustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In accordance with the invention, an under.- shirt or athletic shirt ofthe desired size maybe formed from a piece of tubular knitted fabric ofuniform transverse section which provides the main body portion of theshirt. The piece of tubular fabric may be cut and sewed at one end toprovide neck and arm holes for the garment, to'which arm holes may beadded sleevesof ,any suitable length, if desired. The tubular main bodyportion of the shirt may be of any desired length-althoughina preferredstyle the garment of thepresent invention will normally extend toBecause of the novel construction of the bottom portion of theshirt'which overcomes'its tendency to ride or creep upwardly, it is notnecessary that theshirt extend any substantial distance below the crotchas is sometimes the case insimilar garments of conventional constructionwhere the extra length is utilized for tucking into the crotch (in aneffort to prevent the undesired riding .up action.

The objectives of the invention are attained by splitting the lower endof the tubular knitted body portion of the shirt into a plurality ofsections by means of one or more slits orslots which extend upwardlyfrom the lower-peripheral edge of the shirt a suificient distance topermit a certhemselves smoothly over the hips of the wearer.

.,,panying drawing, wherein:

- i1 is a front view of a mans sleeveless undershirt constituting oneembodiment of the present invention, the shirt being shown in fiattenedcondition as it would appear when new or after laundering;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the shirt of Fig. 1 expanded intotubular form; and

Figs. 3, 4 and are perspective views showing how the shirt would appearwhen worn and the wearer assumes various positions, these three viewsbeing especially intended to illustrate the way in which the slit in thefront of the shirt opens up to permit free movement of the wearers bodywithout causing such stretching of the material across the hips as wouldcause it to creep upwardly and bunch around the waist.

In the embodiment illustrated, the garment comprises a main body portionII which is preferably knitted or woven on suitable machines as aseamless tube of uniform diameter or transverse size having its wales l2extending longitudinally thereof, as indicated in the drawing. The bodyportion II is cut at the top and sewed in such a manner as to provideshoulder straps [3 which outline the arm holes I4 and neck hole i 5, theexposed cut edges of the tubular material defining these holes beingcovered by suitable binding strips I6 customarily made of a materialwhich is substantially non-stretchable circumferentially of the openingswhich it binds. As in the case of undershirts of conventionalconstruction, the main body portion II is of such a length as to extenddownwardly to about the level of the crotch of the wearer of averageheight and weight for the chest size of the shirt, and has a bottomopening which preferably remains entirely unobstructed.

The garment of the present invention differs from those of conventionalform in that the lower portion of the shirt is provided with one or moreslits I! which extend upwardly from the lower peripheral edge of thegarment. Inasmuch as the object of this construction is to avoidstretching the material of the shirt circumferentially to a greaterextent across the hips than at the waist, it will be seen that the slitsshould extend upwardly to about the upper horizontal plane of the hips,slightly below the waist, or, as is indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, for adistance approximating one-sixth of the overall length of center andback center portions of the shirt, re-

spectively. It is to be clearly understood, however, that a single slitmay also sufiice for the purposes of the invention, in which event itmay be positioned at either the front or the back of the garment,although there is an obvious advantage from the point of view ofconvenience in locating a single slit at the front. It may also bedesirable to provide additional slits at the sides of the garment, inaddition to those at the front and back, in order to give even greaterflare to the lower portion of the shirt, although it has been found inpractice that one or two slits are ordinarily suificient.

As is clear from the drawing, each slit I! may be formed by simplycutting the material of the body portion I l upwardly parallel to thewales I2, and then binding the edges of the slit with a suitable bindingstrip 18 which may be of the same material as the bindings I6 of the armand neck holes. With this construction, the vertical edges of the slitare normally substantially parallel and closely adjacent one another,but capable stretching of the material of the main body portion lladjacent the upper end of the slit, a condition which has been found tobe of assistance in attaining the desired objectives of the invention,particularly when the slit opens out in arcuate form when the garment isworn, as illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. If desired, the lower edge ofthe shirt may also be provided with a suitable binding 19, or it may befinished off in any other suitable manner.

Although, due to the stretchability of the fabric in a circumferentialdirection, the garment of the present invention is capable of fittingtightly to the body of the wearer when donned, it is not pre-formed orform-fitted. The slit or slits in the lower part of the shirt, however,permit the portions of the tubular knitted material separated thereby toflare outwardly with a sort of lever action and drape themselvessmoothly over the hip region of the wearer without binding or producingany greater tension in the material of these portions than exists aboutthe waist, thus avoiding any tendency for the bottom portion of theshirtto roll, creep or bunch upwardly toward the waistline. Because ofthe slit construction, the portion of the shirt on each side of thefront slit, for example, may independently follow the movements of thatside of the wearers trunk when walking or assuming a position like thatindicated in Fig. 4, and both portions may freely separate and open upwhen the wearer sits down, as shown in Fig. 5. An undershirt or athleticshirt constructed in this manner provides the wearer with materiallygreater comfort than is obtainable from the shirts heretofore commonlysold on the market.

While only one specific form of garment has been described andillustrated in the accompanying drawing, it will be obvious that variousmodifications of the disclosed embodiment may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, it is notessential that the garment be made from an integral piece of tubularknitted fabric, since it may be constructed by knitting, weaving orsewing in any suitable manner so long as one or more slits are providedin the lower edge of the garment which function in the manner described.The specific shape, size and location of the slit or slits may also bevaried within limits which will clearly appear to those skilled in theart. In this connection, it is recognized that there is, of course, awide variation in shape and proportions of the bodies of persons who maywear garments embodying the present invention. However, when dueconsideration is given to the stated objects of the invention, it isbelieved that the references in the foregoing description and in theappended claims to such portions of the body as the waist, waistline,hips, hip region, hip line and crotch are adequate to describe theessential characteristics of, and to enable those skilled in the art tomanufacture, garments embodying the invention. It is therefore intendedto encompass within the spirit and scope of the invention all suchmodifications of the particular embodiment disclosed as may fall withinthe definitions of the appended claims.

This is a continuation of application Serial No. 260,957, filed March10, 1939.

What is claimed is:

1. A garment for male wear of the character described comprising atubular body portion having an unobstructed bottom opening and ofsufiicient length to extend downwardly over the hips to approximatelythe level of the crotch of the wearer, said body portion being ofuniform transverse size throughout its length when undonned, b-utstretchable circumferentially so as to closely fit the body of thewearer, said body portion also being slit upwardly from at least onepoint on the peripheral edge of said bottom opening to approximately thehip line, the vertical edges of said slit being substantially paralleland closely adjacent one another when the garment is undonned, butcapable of separation when the garment is worn so as to substantiallyeliminate the tendency of said body portion to bunch or roll up aroundthe waist due to the body movements of the wearer.

2. A mans garment of the character described comprising a knittedtubular body portion having an unobstructed bottom opening and ofsufficient length to extend downwardly over the hips to approximatelythe level of the crotch of the wearer, said body portion being ofuniform transverse size throughout its length when the garment isundonned, but stretchable circumferentially so as to closely fit thebody of the wearer,

said body portion also having a slit-like opening in the front thereofextending upwardly from the peripheral edge of the bottom opening to apoint above the plane of maximum width of the hips, and astretch-resisting binding around the periphery of said slit-likeopening, the lower ends of the edges of said slit-like opening lyingclosely adjacent one another when the garment is undonned, but beingcapable of separation when the garment is worn so as to render thetension in the portion-of the garment around the hips not greater thanthat which exists in the portion around the waist.

3. A garment for male wear of the character described comprising aknitted, seamless, tubular body portion having longtiudinally extendingwales and an unobstructed bottom opening, said body portion being ofuniform transverse dimension throughout its length when undonned and ofsufficient length to extend downwardly over the hips of the wearer, thebottom end of said body portion having at least one slit located in thecenter front of the body portion-and extending upwardly from theperipheral edge of said bottom opening to about the upper plane of thehip region of the wearer to prevent the circumferential tensile stressin the portion of the garment about the hips from exceeding that whichexists in the waist portion when the garment is worn, whereby thetendency of the lower end of said body portion to bunch or roll up abovethe hips is substantially eliminated.

DOROTHY L. MCDONALD.

